Zoo Episode Review: “Emotional Contagion”

Alright, so this review is late because I was busy being emotionally traumatized by the last season of White Collar. Yes, I have had it forever, but I didn’t actually watch it until today and I am severely emotionally hurt right now.

I had hoped reviewing Zoo would help me, but nope, this episode was so uncalled for and the preview for next week? Oh my goodness I am so done!

After their discovery last week of a potential cure, the group must find a way to get to Zimbabwe which is proving difficult since they’re on the run. They end up teaming up with a guy Jackson and Abraham know (and who got them into trouble on more than one occasion), Ray Endicott (Warren Christie).

Ray agrees to help them on the condition that they help him and his group break a bunch of animals out of a zoo. While doing this they are caught by security. They manage to get away, but not before Ray gets shot. Thankfully (or not, in Abraham’s opinion) Mitch is able to save him, but since Ray has been shot he can no longer fly the plane they were supposed to be taking to Africa.

Abraham and Ray’s partner go ahead to the airport so Abraham can set everything up (as he will now be flying them out of there) and the others plan to meet him later. As they’re leaving though, Ray wakes up and insists on going with them and on taking the animals they had stolen from the zoo, despite the group telling him it’s too dangerous.

Without room in the truck, Jackson and Chloe end up riding in the back with the murderous animals. Not exactly a cozy spot, but that doesn’t matter as Jackson and Chloe (finally) kiss while they’re back there.

Immediately afterwards (it was like the animals were protesting their affection) all the animals start freaking out and Mitch is forced to pull over the truck after the trailer carrying their cargo opens.

The group manages to run to the airport and Abraham starts the plane, but just before takeoff Chloe stops Ray’s partner from shooting at the police and they both fall out of the plane.

While the others get away Chloe is arrested by Ronnie Brannigan, Ben Shafer’s friend.

An emotional rollercoaster, that’s what this episode was, an absolute emotional rollercoaster. And Jackson was right in the middle of it.

We don’t know a whole lot about Jackson’s father, but what we do is that he apparently became so obsessed with his work it drove him crazy. I feel like this can probably be debated slightly now as we know everything he said in his research was actually right.

We also know that his obsession with his work is pretty much what drove Jackson and his mother to move to Africa and caused a major rift between them. I can imagine then that being compared to his father probably isn’t something Jackson likes, especially from Abraham.

However, we learned last night that this isn’t the first time Jackson has followed Ray into one of his crazy schemes and it seems that a lot of the time it was Abraham who got Jackson out of trouble so it’s definitely understandable why he’d want to avoid the man.

He pointed out that Jackson’s been making a lot of rash decisions lately that don’t always turn out so well and that this is exactly what Jackson said his father started doing towards the end. Ouch.

I was not prepared for what I would feel during this scene. Zoo is the worst in that it’s only been on for ten episodes now and I’m already so emotionally invested it was like watching two people I’ve actually known for years fighting about something. So far these two characters have looked out for each other and it was definitely weird and a different side to their characters to see them disagreeing about something.

Really makes you think though, what Abraham said, on whether or not Jackson’s father was really as crazy as people thought.

Another Jackson-centric storyline last night was with him and Chloe. Now I am an Internet person. I spend a lot of time on Tumblr and Twitter and Fanfiction so I know what people are saying about this show. I know what fandom-type people are saying about this show, especially because I am one of those fandom type people.

People have wanted Jackson and Chloe together for weeks! I am one of these people so I was so excited last night when they were getting closer and then finally, in the back of the trailer, they kissed. I was so happy! I then also couldn’t stop laughing when the animals freaked out because it’s like they were angry about what had just happened in front of them.

“Nope, no affection in front of us!” and then just start bashing down the doors.

However, I guess I should’ve seen it coming that as soon as these two characters actually start something and are happy it would all be ripped away. Classic.

Yup, they kissed and about two minutes later Jackson was on a plane to another country and Chloe was being arrested in America. I have to say, of all the ways I’ve seen in shows and films to tear two characters apart who just started something together, this was one of the least lethal, but perhaps one of the most cruel since they’re both still alive and just being kept apart.

Now that’s officially a thing all us Internet people can start nudging for Mitch and Jamie. I don’t care if it’s a relationship-relationship, I just want to see more of these two sassy people interacting with each other because it’s hilarious.

And they were definitely sassy last night. Mitch was just not having it with Ray and kept schooling him on everything he said.

He just brings humour to the show and it’s wonderful. Him and Jamie broke into one of the offices at the zoo for a piece of equipment needed to make the cure and, after some struggle and sass, he managed to guess the password to the door. Not, however, before saying “I got this.”

There wasn’t a whole lot of animal terror last night, I think they’re giving us a break. Sure there were animals, but it wasn’t like the past couple weeks where there were hordes or rats and killer, mass-communicating birds. There were some angry zebras and camels and other zoo wildlife, but they were in cages or enclosures for most of the episode so it wasn’t so bad.

What I found really interesting about this though is that, even without animal rampages, things still went so horribly wrong last night and it was all because of people.

The people were wearing animal masks which were meant to be symbolic to the group, but I think it was symbolic overall. These animals are going crazy and saying “screw you” to all the people and they’re becoming the dominant species and yet that’s still less terrifying than what people are capable of.

Obviously I don’t want a bear to break into my kitchen or to be surrounded by a swarm of rats and you already know my opinion on birds, but people are scary. People are way scarier than any of those things and I think last night’s episode really showed that.

Next week’s episode (which is two hours!) looks amazing and like another rollercoaster. We’ve only got three episodes left in the season and I have no idea what is going to happen!

What’s going to happen to Chloe? Do the team find a cure? Who shoots Jackson next week?!

I am not prepared for this at all and yet I am so excited for the two hour episode.

2 thoughts on “Zoo Episode Review: “Emotional Contagion””

Hello! 🙂 I follow you for a while, I wanted to leave a comment this week. 😀
Well, I definitely ship Jackson and Chloe, i’m ok with their friendship too; but that kissing…It was AWESOME. I couldn’t stop grinning like an idiot and i watched that scene… like, ten times or something? Now it’s the time for Mitch and Jamie, my another ship 😀 (Actually, I kinda ship everyone with everyone, so…)
I would love to see Chloe in action actually, she’s an agent and i wanna see her skills… I hope next episode we can have good scenes with her. She’s more than we see, I think. And, am I the only one who likes Ray? He’s a bit of douchebag yes, but i don’t know, i have good feelings for him…
Mitch was hilarious this episode, he’s my favorite. ❤
I'm really sorry that the team was separated, but maybe Chloe can make Agent Brannigan believe the truth and he starts to support them? He's a good guy too, it was all Shaffer's fault, at some point, I hope he will understand this.
I really like your reviews, I've read all of them when I discovered you, they were enjoyable. And sorry if i did any mistakes, I'm not good at English.
Bye. 🙂

I think you’re right about Chloe. We know what her job was and we know she’s good at reading people so I think if they try to interogate her or anything like that they won’t learn anything.

I’m sure there are other people out there who like Ray, unfortunately I am not one of them, not yet anyway :p mostly it’s because of the history we learned he has and next week’s preview shows Jackson gets shot and I feel like Ray is probably connected to that somehow. However, my opinion may change depending on the next couple episodes 🙂

Mitch is my favourite too! His sass is wonderful and he’s always hilarious